Anchor Eddy's...open for business
We're two weeks away. Can you believe how long it's been to get to this point? (And I'm not even counting all the time this stories been brewing - that goes back way before Goodbye To You, way before anything, actually)...i'm just talking about the sheer fact that we were working on the script in the fall of 2004, right around the time the grant from the CNY Community Arts Council came through. At that point, we knew we had to get rolling. So, months of revisions, a month of auditions, months and months of filming, and almost a year of editing and re-editing, and here we are.
It's weird. Eddy's has been floating around in my head for so long, it almost feels like it's just existed for all this time even before we made the film. But it hasn't...it's been in my mind...but it didn't exist...it didn't take on life...until filming. The people you see before you...these talnted, dedicated, wonderful people are the ones who brought these characters to life. Without them, it's just my thoughts on a page - and let's be honest, my ramblings aren't that interesting. :)
This is the culmination of a tiny little dream of mine for several years. Heck, though it was different roads that led me here, Eddy's was the map I wanted to be following before I even knew I wanted to make movies - and that's a long time ago.
In fact, i have a very vivid memory of sitting in an Uno Pizzeria in Holyoke, MA some five or six years ago. I was with the always lovely Clare Fitzgerald, who godbless her, has stuck through four films with me to this point, and we were talking about me making a film...finally making a film, not just talking about it - because remember, at the time, the digital revolution was just starting to truly take hold...so for many there was a lot of talk, but not as much do as we all would have liked. But this time it was different. I was going to make a movie. I was going to do it cheap, with what i could afford, but i was gonna make it good, and i was gonna make it from the heart. I'm sure Clare thought I was crazy - hell, who doesn't still think that the minute I open my mouth with some weird new idea - but we got into talking about the different stories I had wanted to do.
For Clare there was no question. "You need to make Eddy's," she told me. And...
I didn't.
(Fooled ya, didn't I?)
No, at the time, I remember telling Clare "it just wasn't the right time...not for a first film." I had neither the experience, the people, or the funding or equipment to pull it off. And if we were going to do my baby...Eddy's...I needed a little more under my belt than I had as a 20 or 21 year old college student with a Sony Digital 8 Handycam.
Nope, I went with Goodbye To You. Which, I think if you look retrospectively at my films, was the best way to go. It got the feet wet, and it got me bitten by the bug. There was no way I was going to let this feeling go. Seeing these characters, these worlds, brought to life before my very eyes, living out their lives for not only me to see, but for others, and for all to think about even after the credits closed. And when you wonder that...when you wonder what happened to those characters after they're no longer on screen...then the filmmaker's done a halfway decent job.
Now, it's 2006...almost 2007 if you can believe it. The time was right. We had the equipment...we had the most talented - and loyal - bunch of folks in the world...and we had the full support of the arts council, the city government, the department of education that knew students would learn more working on a film than they ever would readnig about it, and a slew of businesses that were more than willing to lend a hand. It was time.
It is time.
Anchor Eddy's is opening for business on Oct. 7.
It's been a long time coming.
It's weird. Eddy's has been floating around in my head for so long, it almost feels like it's just existed for all this time even before we made the film. But it hasn't...it's been in my mind...but it didn't exist...it didn't take on life...until filming. The people you see before you...these talnted, dedicated, wonderful people are the ones who brought these characters to life. Without them, it's just my thoughts on a page - and let's be honest, my ramblings aren't that interesting. :)
This is the culmination of a tiny little dream of mine for several years. Heck, though it was different roads that led me here, Eddy's was the map I wanted to be following before I even knew I wanted to make movies - and that's a long time ago.
In fact, i have a very vivid memory of sitting in an Uno Pizzeria in Holyoke, MA some five or six years ago. I was with the always lovely Clare Fitzgerald, who godbless her, has stuck through four films with me to this point, and we were talking about me making a film...finally making a film, not just talking about it - because remember, at the time, the digital revolution was just starting to truly take hold...so for many there was a lot of talk, but not as much do as we all would have liked. But this time it was different. I was going to make a movie. I was going to do it cheap, with what i could afford, but i was gonna make it good, and i was gonna make it from the heart. I'm sure Clare thought I was crazy - hell, who doesn't still think that the minute I open my mouth with some weird new idea - but we got into talking about the different stories I had wanted to do.
For Clare there was no question. "You need to make Eddy's," she told me. And...
I didn't.
(Fooled ya, didn't I?)
No, at the time, I remember telling Clare "it just wasn't the right time...not for a first film." I had neither the experience, the people, or the funding or equipment to pull it off. And if we were going to do my baby...Eddy's...I needed a little more under my belt than I had as a 20 or 21 year old college student with a Sony Digital 8 Handycam.
Nope, I went with Goodbye To You. Which, I think if you look retrospectively at my films, was the best way to go. It got the feet wet, and it got me bitten by the bug. There was no way I was going to let this feeling go. Seeing these characters, these worlds, brought to life before my very eyes, living out their lives for not only me to see, but for others, and for all to think about even after the credits closed. And when you wonder that...when you wonder what happened to those characters after they're no longer on screen...then the filmmaker's done a halfway decent job.
Now, it's 2006...almost 2007 if you can believe it. The time was right. We had the equipment...we had the most talented - and loyal - bunch of folks in the world...and we had the full support of the arts council, the city government, the department of education that knew students would learn more working on a film than they ever would readnig about it, and a slew of businesses that were more than willing to lend a hand. It was time.
It is time.
Anchor Eddy's is opening for business on Oct. 7.
It's been a long time coming.
posted by David Dellecese at 7:41 PM
